406 



TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



" My boyhood and youth were, for the most 

 part, spent in the country ; and all country ob- 

 jects, sports, and labors, horse-racing and hunting 

 excepted, have had a never-failing charm for me. 

 As a boy, I ranged the country far and wide in 

 curious quest and study of all the wild creatures 

 of the woods and fields, in great delight in birds 

 and their uests, climbing the loftiest trees, rocks, 

 and buildings, in pursuit of them. In fact, the life 

 described in the ' Boys' Country Book ' was my 

 own life. No hours were too early for me, and in 

 the bright sunny fields in the early mornings, 

 amid dews and odors of flowers, I breathed that 

 pure air which gave a life-long tone to my lungs 

 that I still reap the benefit of. All these daily 

 habits of climbing, running, and working, devel- 

 oped my frame to perfection, and gave a vigor to 

 nerve and muscle that have stood well the wear 

 and tear of existence. My brain was not dwarfed 

 by excessive study in early boyhood, as is too 

 much the case with children of to-day. Nature 

 says, as plainly as she can speak, that the in- 

 fancy of all creatures is sacred to play, to physical 

 action, and the joyousness of mind that give life 

 to every organ of the system. Lambs, kittens, 

 kids, foals, even young pigs and donkeys, all 

 teach the great lesson of Nature, that to have a 

 body healthy and strong, the prompt and efficient 

 vehicle of the mind, we must not infringe on her 

 ordinations by our study and cramping sedentari- 

 ness in life's tender years. We must not throw 

 away or misappropriate her forces destined to the 

 corporeal architecture of man, by tasks that be- 

 long properly to an after-time. There is no mis- 

 take so fatal to the proper development of man 

 and woman as to pile on the immature brain, and 

 on the yet unfinished fabric of the human body, 

 a weight of premature, and therefore unnatural, 

 study. In most of those cases where Nature has 

 intended to produce a first-class intellect, she has 

 guarded her embryo genius by a stubborn slow- 

 ness of development. Moderate study and plenty 

 of play and exercise in early youth are the true 

 requisites for a noble growth of intellectual powers 

 in man, and for its continuance to old age." 



EDUCATION IN ADOLESCENCE. 



In the education that is bestowed on the 

 young in the period of their adolescence, namely, 

 from the seventeenth or eighteenth to the twenty- 

 second or twenty-third year, there is, I regret to 

 say, no redeeming quality in regard to health as 

 an attendant consideration. 



Young men and young women, who are now 

 presenting themselves for the higher-class exami- 

 nations at our universities and public boards, are 

 literally crushed by the insanity of the effort. It 

 has happened to me within the past year to have 



under observation four of these victims to the 

 inquisition of learning. 



In one of these examples, where success, so 

 called, crowned the effort, in addition to many 

 minor injuries inflicted on the body, an absence 

 of memory has succeeded the cram, so that names 

 of common places are for the time quite forgot- 

 ten; while the subjects that were got up so accu- 

 rately have become a mere confused dream, in 

 which all that relates to useful learning is inex- 

 tricably bui'ied. 



In another of these competitors, the period 

 of competition was attended with an entire ab- 

 sence of sleep, and thereby with that exhaustion 

 which leads almost to delirious wandering of 

 mind. Here failure led to an extreme depres- 

 sion, to a forgetfulness of the reason of failure, 

 and to a listlessness on all subjects it will take 

 months to cure. 



In the third example to which I refer, sleep- 

 lessness, labor, and excitement, brought on an 

 hereditary tendency to intermitting action of the 

 heart, to unsteadiness of power, and thereby to 

 uncertainty of effort, which almost of necessity 

 led to failure of attempt. Even cram in an in- 

 stance of this nature, backed by all the assiduity 

 that will, and patience, and industry, could sup- 

 port, was obliged to fail, because the physical 

 force was not at hand to keep the working body 

 in accord with the mental power. Ignorant of 

 what they were after, the examiners who were 

 putting on the screw were not examining the 

 mental qualities of this youth at all, but were 

 really trying how loDg his heart would hold out 

 under their manipulation. 



In the fourth instance, it was my duty to de- 

 cide whether a youth, brought up just to the 

 condition for going into the inquisition, should, 

 worn and wearied with the labor, bloodless and 

 sleepless, run the risk — being quite ready for it — 

 or should, at the last moment, take six months' 

 entire rest, and then be got up to the same pitch 

 of lifelessness and misery again. 



Is there any occasion to wonder at these 

 phenomena ? One of the members of my pro- 

 fession has a son who originally was a lad of 

 good parts, and who, after undergoing the in- 

 quisition, had to wander about for months in 

 travel, helpless in mental and physical state — 

 " more like an idiot," said his father to me, than 

 anything else. Is there any occasion to wonder 

 at these phenomena, I repeat? None. In some 

 of these inquisitions each examiner can pluck 

 from his own paper, and there are several ex- 

 aminers. Ask one of those examiners to answer 



